Lad’s post-match McDonald’s ends with crushing £100 sting nobody noticed coming

A young footballer who popped into McDonald’s after a game was left fuming when he was stung with a massive bill for overstaying in the car park for a few minutes.

Matty Woods, who’s a regular at the Maccy D’s in Lincoln, was hit with the eye-watering £100 bill – roughly the equivalent of the cost of a Big Mac for every 50 seconds he overstayed.

Matty had gone to the Rope Walk branch to catch up with his mates over some grub after they’d finished their game, and they ended up staying at the restaurant for 16 minutes over the free-parking allowance.

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It seems that Maccy D’s have pinched an idea from rival Burger King, because the 18-year-old found himself hit with an absolute Whopper of a bill.

It worked out at £6.25 a minute – and he’d have been able to buy nearly 20 Big Macs for that.

Matty didn’t dispute that he broke the parking T&Cs, but reckoned the stonking bill was over the top, even allowing for the fact it would be cut to £50 if he settled early.

To rub salt into his wounds, the parking company’s trade body insists its members give drivers a 10-minute grace period – meaning Matty would have been OK if he’d left the car park just six minutes earlier.

And what made it even more gutting was that one of his pals works at the restaurant, and his mates were just keeping him company until he started his shift.

“I couldn’t believe I got the parking ticket. I was honestly at Maccies catching up with mates I hadn’t seen for a while and spending money in there,” said sports science student Matty, who goes to the fast-food joint regularly.

“So for me to be inside their store with all of us spending money and eating, only to be hit with that bill for parking there, was gutting.”

His old man, Simon, was equally annoyed. He took up the fight with McDonald’s on Matty’s behalf but hit a brick wall.

Although the stinging bill was issued by UK Parking Control, Maccy D’s had the power to instruct UKPC to shred it – but the restaurant chain was having none of it.

Simon, from Louth, Lincs, was fobbed off with a reply from the customer service team, which said: “I trust you will appreciate that in order to maintain a consistent approach, we have to adhere to the guidelines in place regardless of whether you were in the restaurant for the duration of the stay or not.

“As such, in a situation such as a clear contravention of parking regulations, we are unable to deal with any specifics or cases on an individual basis.”

Matty then appealed the ticket with UKPC directly but his appeal was turned down.

Grudgingly, Simon recommended that his lad cough up, as early settlement meant he could get away with forking out just £50 rather than the full £100.

But it all left a bitter taste with Matty, who’s on the Future Elite Sports programme at the SMB College Group’s Brooksby campus, near Melton Mowbray, where he trains daily. He also plays for Cottesmore AFC at weekends.

Parking companies often threaten legal action against non-payers. But the Supreme Court ruled a few years ago that a parking company cannot “charge a sum which would be out of all proportion to its interest or that of the landowner for whom it is providing the service”.

If Matty’s case had gone to court, the court would have had to decide whether a £100 bill for a 16-minute infringement by a paying customer was proportional.

McDonald’s failed to reply to several requests for comment, directing queries to UK Parking Control.

UKPC has been contacted for comment.

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